Oct. 3 – BALTIMORE — Superstar Bobby Witt Jr., who is on Kansas City’s first playoff team since the 2015 World Series squad, said the Royals are likely to make the playoffs this year, with his goal being to create his own October legacy.
After two matches, he has taken the first step.
Witt was the RBI choice for the second straight day and five Kansas City relievers homered as the Rams beat the Orioles 2-1 on Wednesday and sent the Royals to the American League Division Series.
Kansas City sealed the three-game wild-card series with a 1-0 win in Tuesday’s opener. The Royals will now face the top-seeded New York Yankees in a best-of-five series. The first game is Saturday in New York.
“I think this is the start of something special,” Witt said. “Like I’ve always said, we didn’t get to this point just because we did, so we’re going to keep doing it.”
Witt got the win on Tuesday with a two-out, one-run hit in the sixth inning. He performed in similar fashion on Wednesday.
In the sixth inning, Kansas City put runners on the corners with two outs and the game tied 1-1. Yenier Cano relieved Cionelle Perez (0-1) against Witt, who pushed a run-scoring infield grounder to center.
The Royals bullpen carried on from there.
After Angel Zerpa (1-0) came in in the fifth inning, he and John Schreiber pitched the bottom of the sixth, then Schreiber and Sam Long pitched the seventh. Chris Bubic took over in the eighth and Lucas Erceg struck out Gunnar Henderson in the final outing to get his second save.
“It’s unbelievable,” Kansas City coach Matt Quatraro said. “If you come here and play against that team and give up one run in 18 innings, sign me.”
After Baltimore scored the first points of the series, Witt got a field goal in the first inning but missed a chance to score further.
Cedric Mullins hit the first career postseason home run in the fifth inning, and then the next three batters scored with the bases loaded and nobody out thanks to Seth Lue Gow’s fielding error.
Lugo struck out Anthony Sanchez and got the ball out, Zelpa struck out Colton Cowser with a fastball that hit Cowser’s arm and then he gave Adell Rutschman’s ground ball to shortstop Witt.
Cowher exited the game in the seventh inning. The Orioles later announced that Cowher had broken his left hand during the strikeout.
Baltimore missed that opportunity when it got runners on second and third in the fourth. Michael Massie scored the game’s first run at third base with a diving stop at second base in the bottom of the inning that saved a run.
The Orioles held 16 runners in the series and ultimately went 1–13 with men in scoring position. Baltimore missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year and have lost their last 10 postseason games since the 2014 ALDS.
“I think when you lose like that, you’re disappointed and angry and frustrated because you feel like there were chances to change the score in those two games and they didn’t,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
Lugo allowed one run on five hits in 4 1/3 innings. He gave up one base hit and struck out six. Orioles right-hander Jack Eflin allowed one run on four hits in four innings, striking out three and driving in two.
Baltimore was 57–33 after a win on July 7, but was outscored 34–38 the rest of the way. The Orioles scored 22 runs in a three-game sweep of Minnesota during the regular season, but allowed only 11 hits against the Royals.
“I think we did our best,” Hyde said. “We showed grit. We made the playoffs. We got the wild card. In those two games, we faced a really good pitching team and a really bad team offensively and did really well. It’s tough.”
Now, that scattered team is heading to New York.
—Tanner Malinowski, On-Sight Media
